Lisa Benson for April 13, 2016

Single payer..Insurance companies better hope Obamacare works because they helped write it. If it doesn’t, it will be a mess..The Republicans have yet to offer an alternative.

You/d think by now Lisa would wake up to the fact that the issues have changed.

Fear not, when Cruz or Trump become president, the first order of business will be to appeal Obamacare. Apparently its one of their highly touted jobs programs.

All other civilized countries have some form of universal health care with some sort of government involvement. These countries also have cheaper healthcare and their citizens have a longer life expectancy. Can someone give me a cogent explanation of why some form of universal health care with government involvement not work in the U.S.

I was paying 1200/month just for me before ACA, now about 600/month.

Wish I could say that. Obamacare as a program is a disaster.

@Gypsy8 And it Can’t come too soon. The masses have gotten quite comfortable taking their freebies from those who work and earn their way through life.

It’s time to start weaning the deadbeats off the public dole.

Insurance companies are corporations and were making profits. But if they didn’t make a profit they wouldn’t be in business.

Many of us are tired of hearing how entitled the non-working are.

Atlas IS Shrugging!!!!

exoticdoc wants to keep government out of healthcare. Standing on principal he will no doubt turn down Medicare which has allowed millions to live a healthier retirement.Now that those previously unable to obtain medical coverage have it they are using it, and damn it that’s just not profitable. Universal healthcare saves lives and saves assets there is nothing free about it we pay into it like we pay our Congressmen, our Firemen and our Soldiers.

Oh, the Republicans DO have an alternative to ObamaCare. It’s called: “Just say NO!”.

Gosh, I live in a single payer system, up here in Canada, and I just wish Canada would adopt the US system. Not.

Perhaps someone can tell us when insurance companies went from being private independent companies whose resources were the payments of their clients, to a for profit corporation with responsibilities to shareholders and executives who feel underpaid if they make less than 7 figures. If insurers were not beholden to shareholders and received all of their funds from those they insured, and if executives received a 6 figure salary and bonuses based on solvency and service provided, perhaps insurance companies would be more flexible than they are today. Currently, all Americans who use hospitals or belong to an insurance plan are paying a tax. This tax is levied by bills that medical providers pass on to insurance companies and ppl who can afford medical care in order to make up for losses incurred by those hospitals MUST treat in Emergency Rooms, but who cannot afford to pay for their treatment. Something INTELLIGENT and LONG TERM needs to be done. It is unlikely to be accomplished by our cannibalistic two party oligarchy who work too hard to divide the electorate for us to force them to take action.It can be done. It is up to the voters to make their representatives do it.Respectfully,C.

The ACA is not a public health care plan. It is still a private solution as private health insurance still do the negotiating for the cost. So it is no different in this respect then before the Affordable Care Act. This fact that nothing is gained in health care cost control other than maybe better earlier screening health care cost will continue to go up. But is it going up at a faster rate?...Maybe a better free market system would be to do away with insurance companies all together. Health providers would have to post their prices to everyone before health care is provided. This would be a dirrect market approach. The problem right now is that their is a disconnect between health care cost, prices, and quality of healthcare between the consumer, you and me, and the health care provider. You do have the problem of affordability for all as health care is needed by all and someone making minimum wage will not be able to afford health care, and emergency room visits. .The other way is single payer as the government is a big insurance company. It would allow for more negotiating leverage. How other countries that have single payer compare to the US in health care costs:..

Obamacare is costing less for the government than projected..

We both finally get Medicare. $220 or so a month. Our supplement is $250. But due to contracted rates, my co pay at MD will drop from $35 to about $5. That $110K hospital bill I had in 2013: co pay then, $2200, now about $500. I hope I never have to use it, but I’m willing to pay $470 a month IN THE EVENT IT’S NEEDED. That is what insurance means. If paying $470 each month would guarantee universal health care, I would find a way to pay it. I just cut a check to IRS that was greater than Donald Trump ever paid…but I am proud to have paid it as I followed the rules, had a qualified EA crunch the numbers, and can hold my head high with integrity and honesty. Many can not or will not do the same…EVER.

If 1% of the effort put into debating this issue was instead used to design a solution that everyone could live with there would be many happier, healthy Americans, but … the joys of “I’m right, you’re wrong!” binary politics prevails. At least we amuse the rest of the OECD countries, that pay much less for the same or better care!

The funny thing about all the discussion of Obamacare as failing and single payer would only dig the hole deeper is that there is no logic to it..Take the cartoon, Lisa Benson is showing insurers leaving Obamacare which is not true to any large extent, but do you think they are leaving because they can lower health care expenses and give better deals to the consumer out of the Obamacare marketplace? or has it more to do with their bottom line and not the consumers?.Health care cost have been going up for years and the talk to fix it has been going on for years, if everything was honky dory in health care and there was actual competition Obamacare would not exist. Obamacare exist because the private sector free health care market was and still is failing to work. No competition. Disconnect of services, quality, and price..It is not like there any conversation of the government getting into the grocery business. Why? Because the free market is working there..Is Obamacare helping to rein in costs? It is really to early to tell. But I think Obamacare is a half-hearted effort written by insurance companies trying to keep themselves relevant. I suspect that health care cost will climb at about the same rate as before Obamacare. But Obamacare is covering more people and that is a win. Overall, Obamacare is not failing more than what was before. Could it have been better? Yes.The other illogical thinking is if there was a free market solution to health care wouldn’t it be found by now? Does it really need the government to come in and fix and find the solution? .The Republicans could have repealed Obamacare if they had a better solution but have yet to produce it. People need to vote for something and not against something with nothing to replace it.

Are you kidding?The insurers are staying on board, they just want to blame the ACA for the increases in premiums.Of course there was an increase in people seeing doctors and those doctors finding more health problems.These are people that didn’t have healthcare before!

Lack of health insurance should never be a death sentence.

Coal fire electrical plant & Health Ins. Companies….the world will be a better place WITHOUT them =)

Yes. I can’t say I have come to terms with death, but whether one comes to terms or not, it’s going to happen. All the money in the world, all the fancy medicine in the world, ultimately is not going to prevent it. There comes a time when it has to be accepted. I’ve seen some people do a very good job of dying, and some who haven’t. I hope I will manage okay. I’m doing my best now while I’m alive and in reasonably good health to think it through and to feel it through.

Maybe a huge tax on Big Pharma TV ads would lower costs – not to mention getting some of those annoying commercials off the tube

I invest in insurance companies so I know this strip is a total piece of serious misinformation. Any insurer would be nuts to bolt the program and profits are up across the board. Anybody with a preexisting condition has got to be better off now.

How many other “rights” are libs going to invent before they run out of our money?